“ODeath, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
Parallel translations
- WEB “Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?”
- KJV O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
- BSB “Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?”
- NASB Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?”
- NLT O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul taunts death and Hades, asking where their sting and victory are now. It matters because it celebrates Christ's conquest over death's power.
Overview
Echoing Hosea, Paul mocks the defeated enemies, death and the grave, whose power has been broken. Their sting and victory are gone because of Christ's resurrection. This jubilant cry expresses the believer's confidence that death no longer holds final mastery.
Cross-references & the web
Quotation
- Hos 13:14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
Cross-references · 14
- Hos 13:14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
- Ps 89:48What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.
- Rom 5:14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.
- Acts 2:27because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.
- Ps 49:8–15For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough,
- Eccl 2:15–16Then I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity.
- Acts 9:5He said, “Who are you, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
- Eccl 8:8There is no man who has power over the spirit to contain the spirit; neither does he have power over the day of death. There is no discharge in war; neither shall wickedness deliver those who practice it.
- Rev 20:13–14The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works.
- Eccl 9:5–6For the living know that they will die, but the dead don’t know anything, neither do they have any more a reward; for their memory is forgotten.
- Luke 16:23In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom.
- Eccl 3:19For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals: for all is vanity.
- Job 18:13–14The members of his body shall be devoured. The firstborn of death shall devour his members.
- Rev 9:10They have tails like those of scorpions, and stings. In their tails they have power to harm men for five months.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 15:55 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.